Before I say anything else…get yourself a copy of Super F*ckers by James Kochalka. It may be seven bucks, but I assure you, it’s a bargain. It’s superheroes at their most petty and foul-mouthed, and it’s absolutely brilliant. Darn good-lookin’, too…nicely done color in this book. And yes, we sold out of it, but I’m getting more, I promise!
The first issue of the new direction of Firestorm came out this week, complete with a huge “#1” on the cover which, everytime I see something like that, I think “okay, is anyone going to be fooled into thinking this is an actual first issue?” Apparently it works, since that cover element still pops up every once in a while. Anyway, new writer Stuart Moore takes us away from the ghost of previous Firestorm incarnations, and gives our current Firestorm, Jason, a new home, a new job, and a new villain. Good old-fashioned superhero fun that doesn’t feel like we’ve seen it all already…this old-time Firestorm fan is looking forward to future issues, not that I wasn’t before.
Illusive Arts’ Dorothy #3 continues to be the only photo-funnies style comic I’ve enjoyed (beyond Fandom Confidential, he said, showing his age). Dave Dorman provides the attractive cover.
Concrete: The Human Dilemma #6 wraps up the current storyline, and, as I was afraid, I can’t wait for the next series, even though I know darn well it’ll be a couple years at least before I’ll see it. Paul Chadwick hints at some developments in future stories in his letters column, because he apparently likes to torture us.
Oh, and I think I’m used to the new DC logo now.
The release of the Who Is Donna Troy? trade paperback this week (featuring all the previous permutations of Wonder Girl’s origins, sans the one that appeared around the 130s in Wonder Woman, thankfully) reminded me of last week’s DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy. (Well, that, and reading Dr. Doom’s review.) While the art (by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and George Perez) was, as expected, absolutely gorgeous, I had a heck of a time reading the darned thing. Maybe I wasn’t familiar with some of the backstory here, or maybe it was just the mood I was in, but I couldn’t follow the narrative. I’ll give it another shot and report back to you folks, but it was rough going that first time around.
Rick Veitch’s Maximortal trade paperback was released in a new edition this week as well. If you haven’t read it before, it’s a prequel of sorts to his Brat Pack series, mixing a grotesque parody of Superman with a fictionalized history of two comic book creators who may have a slight resemblance to Superman’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. This book is highly recommended, if you haven’t read it before, and let’s hope Veitch revists this particularly twisted universe of his sometime soon.
Speaking of Siegel & Shuster, here’s an interview with them from the early 1980s.
